


Bone Density (a grave act)

by PurpleHawk



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst and Feels, Gen, Smart Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 16:03:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6158992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleHawk/pseuds/PurpleHawk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One cubic inch of bone can in principle bear a load of 19,000 lbs. This means that bones can withstand a weight of roughly five pickup trucks – making them four times as strong as concrete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bone Density (a grave act)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, this is a mess. I'm also sorry for scientific references, this is what happens when you take on a science degree.

Bone density (a grave act)

 

When Dean was a boy he couldn’t stand the taste of milk.

It seems a ridiculous thought to ponder on now, the Darkness looming noxiously over their heads, Lucifer currently MIA – likely plotting his fortieth iteration of the apocalypse. But regardless, there’s not much to be accomplished from where he’s sitting in some insignificant Podunk town somewhere within a bomb-radius of Lebanon, Kansas.

So anyways, his mother used to tell him he needed to drink a glass of milk everyday if he wanted to grow up to be big and strong, just like his father. It’s one of his clearest memories of her; she was blonde and beautiful and smiling as she held the glass out to a toddler Dean with a twinkle in her eyes. Dean, god bless his innocent child soul, always refused, turning his nose up and pouting.

It’s laughable almost now – with 20/20 hindsight, perhaps if he hadn’t been such a brat and drank the milk as a kid, he wouldn’t have gone to hell. Maybe he would have been big and strong enough to search for their father without driving his own pathetic ass to Palo Alto to drag his younger brother with him. Maybe Jess wouldn’t have died, maybe Sam wouldn’t have died and Dean never would have made his deal in the first place.

Maybe he never would have been the righteous man who cracked and set loose goddamn Satan _himself_ upon the world.

And then maybe Cas wouldn’t be walking around as the devil’s personal puppet right now.

Fact: bone tissue consists of two different types – cortical and trabecular. The trabecular tissue consists of a lacy inner structure of calcium crystals while cortical tissue consists of very dense outer bone tissue.

Fact: even if Dean drank the world’s supply of milk, he’s pretty sure that the damage he carries with him would seep through both layers.

And yeah, Dean prides himself on being able to keep pushing, to keep getting back up even when he’s sure he’s got no hope of winning. But somehow this feels worse than Sam ditching him for a pet dog, than Cas choosing to stay in Purgatory, worse than going to _hell._

After all, how exactly do you fix something that you broke badly enough that an angel of the lord consented to Lucifer possessing him?

Yeah, Dean’s at a loss too.

Maybe, just maybe if life were simple he could just throw the body of Jimmy Novak into a flask and attach him to a distillation column; kick back and watch the separate entities collect and then grab Cas and run while Lucifer was still vapour.  
(Condition for distillation: at least one compound must be volatile)

Fact: Dean is gonna get Cas back, whatever stands in the way.

Fact: Cas deserves be to saved, even if the dumbass doesn’t know it.

On some of his better days, Dean actually reads. Turns out that one cubic inch of bone can in principle bear a load of 19,000 lbs. This means that bones can withstand a weight of roughly five pickup trucks – making them four times as strong as concrete. Of course, Dean knows this is all conjecture, not accounting for where and how fast the force is applied.

Fact: Castiel weights approximately 170 pounds.

Fact: Dean’s bones will have no problem supporting his weight.

So for now, they’ll keep searching for a way to defeat the Darkness, to get Cas back. For now, Dean will take his mother up on her advice and drink the remnants of the milk carton Sam bought to put into his coffee this morning. After all, it does say it is calcium fortified in fancy, neon print on the side of the jug.

(fact: calcium improves mineral bone density.  
fact: Dean’s bones could use the extra reinforcement, just in case)


End file.
